A guy came up to my house a little while ago, he said he was here to measure the power poles on my property. Being curious I watched him measure one. He tied a pole about 5' long to the pole and got an electronic instrument on a tripod and went 20 0r 30 feet from the pole and did something with the instrument and then loaded up his stuff and went on his way. I suppose this is the modern way to measure the height of something but I wondered if he knew how to do it without that device. I would have done it the old fashioned way, take a pole of a known length, stand it up next to the power pole, measure it's shadow then measure the shadow of the power pole and do a little math. I'm sure it would be cheaper.

With no God over the state, the state then becomes not the defender of liberty but the definer of liberty.

With your assistant standing next to the pole, stand back about 50’ with a stick in your outstretched hand. Align the top of your stick with the top of the pole. Adjust your thumb on the stick to align with the bottom of the pole.

Now, rotate the stick to the horizontal, keeping your thumb aligned with the bottom of the pole. Have your assistant pace out steps along the visual line of the stick. When they reach the end of the stick, they will have pased out a length equal to the height of the pole.

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Can I have a motorcycle when I get old enough?
If you take care of it.
What do you have to do?
Lots of things. You've been watching me.
Will you show me all of them?
Sure.
Is it hard?
Not if you have the right attitudes. Its having the right attitudes that's hard.

Measure from your eye to your outstretched hand. Take a stick and hold it at a point that matches the measurement. Hold that stick at arms length and move forward or backward until the top of the stick matches the top of the pole and the bottom of the pole is at the point where the stick is held in your hand. From your feet to the pole should be the height of the pole.

With your assistant standing next to the pole, stand back about 50’ with a stick in your outstretched hand. Align the top of your stick with the top of the pole. Adjust your thumb on the stick to align with the bottom of the pole.

Now, rotate the stick to the horizontal, keeping your thumb aligned with the bottom of the pole. Have your assistant pace out steps along the visual line of the stick. When they reach the end of the stick, they will have pased out a length equal to the height of the pole.

Measure from your eye to your outstretched hand. Take a stick and hold it at a point that matches the measurement. Hold that stick at arms length and move forward or backward until the top of the stick matches the top of the pole and the bottom of the pole is at the point where the stick is held in your hand. From your feet to the pole should be the height of the pole.

Those are some interesting ideas. May have to try that just for grins. I remember being taught the shadow method in elementary school several days ago.

With no God over the state, the state then becomes not the defender of liberty but the definer of liberty.

Thanks for reminding us the use of technology is not always the answer. I am trying to instill this in my grandchildren every chance I get. Sometimes they are very surprised at the “old school” alternative.

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